Oprah's No-Phone Zone

What do you think of this initiative - do get people to sign a pledge to not use the phone (specifically texting I believe) while driving?

http://www.oprah.com/packages/no-phone-zone.html

I just happened to see about 2 minutes of her show focussing on this. The stories on this website will surely make you . Our county just passed a law that texting while driving is illegal - I HOPE they will be enforcing this. It really scares me when I see people texting while driving. But I know myself, I have done it while waiting at traffic lights - I have tried to be better about this.

Having a new driver in our house to whom texting is a main form of communication, I keep, keep , keep stressing the importance of this - ignoring the vibration in his pocket (the phone, guys). I know it will be a temptation.

Your opinion, thoughts? Will Oprah make a difference?

I doubt she'll make a difference, but I agree with it. I won't use my phone in the car. I rarely even answer it in the car especially on the highway.

I want my sister to get it through her head to stop texting while she drives because she has 4 kids in the car! She said she pays more attention when texting, if that's true I'm scared to think what it's like when she isn't texting.

I was almost hit at another red light the other day because a woman ran it and she was talking on the phone! I was paying attention thankfully and didn't go even though my light was green. I don't think she even knew she ran it.

No ones going to put thier phone away and never use it - just not going to happen.

I'd like to see a better more responsible use approach.

Lives ARE lost because of cell phone use

as well as
. . . trying to feed the baby
. . . doing your make up
. . . trying to stop the kids fighting in the back seat
. . . arguing with your bf in the seat next to you
. . . reaching for the purse that fell on the floor
. . . craning to see an accident in the other lane
. . . gawking at the fireworks going off
. . . flirting with someone in the car next to you
. . . reviewing the bosses words that pissed you off
. . . teen pranks they find funny

I could go on and on

TEXTing is just simply stupid while you're driving. Would you type out a term paper while you were driving ? Texting is clearly stupid and irresponsible behavior while driving and well. . . stupid has a way of dying or killing because they are stupid.

But simple cell phone use - hands free when possible - is not any different than talking to the driver next to you and for all the lives it might have taken - there are thousands it saved also. Getting yourself out of a bad situation is priceless and life saving. Being stranded with no phone can well be your death notice. Abducted children pleading for someone to help are real glad you have a phone within reach. Bad accidents where people have minutes to live and cant help themselves are a great reason for cell phones. Reporting drunk drivers on your phone saves lives.

People need to learn safe ways to use them rather than ban them. Banning them will simply never work. . . and shouldn't.

Agree with most ^^^^ - there was a terrible tragic accident very close to our home last year that killed a Mother and her unborn child and injured her other child - best they can figure, she lost control when she turned to check her child in the back seat.

But how many people use the hands-free calling? I think not enough. I do try and use the speaker phone even though it sounds like I am shouting to the other person on the phone! I don't think most people use this option.

But thats the point

Instead of a ban campaign they should start a responsible use campaign as well as make hands free calling simple, free, accessible and mandatory.

I can agree with that. Sure there would be some roadblocks (sorry for the pun), but yeah, that would help.

I guess I jumped the gun and agreed before I knew what I was agreeing to. I thought it was just to ban texting while driving. But I don't use my phone at all when driving, and you know it wasn't long ago that none of us had phones outside of our homes, so I really think we could live without them.

As a parent, I overall am very thankful for cell phones!

There is never going back on technology - you can't live without them really.

Could you have lived without it when you were job searching ? Would you really want to lose out on all the call backs each day while you were out without your phone ?

Being stranded makes you a target - a phone in your hand keeps you safe.

I'd like to know how many people were rescued in Haiti by calling someone on a cell phone to say they were trapped. It happens often. They are important tools. They should be kept at hand. That doesn't mean you have to use it frivilously or be so stupid to tie your hands up when you are driving. Texting is about equal to trying to cut your toenails while driving and just as stupid in my opinion.

True fact about cell phones and Haiti - it definitely happened.

So I use the speaker feature on my phone - but there are other "hands-free " devices right? What exactly are they? Headphones? Those bluetooth thingys (sorry, a pet peeve, I can't stand when I see people wearing them!) What else?

Dunno . . . but Oprahs money and power would be better spent in developing them in my opinion. Maybe something that blocked texting in a car would be cool.

I've been screaming since cell phones were introduced that people should NOT be allowed to use them while driving. Every single time I'm driving, I have some close-call with some idiot too involved in their phone conversation to even notice they are cutting me off.

One day about a week ago, I was at the grocery store. There was a woman on a cell phone standing right in front of the freezer section that I wanted to grab some stuff from. I said "excuse me" *FIVE TIMES*...even said, "I'm sorry, Ma'am, could I get to the freezer case, please?" She was only standing there with her cart completing blocing my access and she wasn't looking in the freezer....she was yapping away.

Well, after trying to be polite, I finally got so ticked off that I just shoved myself between her, her cart and the freezer. She looked at me with a strange look and I just ignored her.

I HATE CELL PHONES.

Yeah, I bet we all have cell phone annoyance stories. I was at a little fruit-vegetable-deli type market last week. I was waiting in line to get some turkey for sandwiches -this woman was on her cell phone, as loud as if she was in her own home, arguing with her "former" employee about a check for her last 10 days work - LOUDLY. I was not only ticked but also embarrassed for her teenage daughter who was with her and was trying to look like she didn't belong with her. Woman, I'm sorry you have problems but let's not discuss them in the deli department....

I just laugh when I'm waiting in line somewhere and someone is talking on their phone. I don't know why it seems everyone I encounter is *yelling* instead of just talking. For instance, if I'm in line at the bank and someone is talking for the whole bank to hear, I just have to kinda stare at them and I laugh.

Maybe everyone should just be taught some cell phone edict.


I hate people who talk on their cell phones when they are checking out to, and the poor cashier is standing there waiting for them to finish their credit card transaction or whatever, or trying to talk to them, and they are all involved in their cell phone conversation.

My father use to call me like that to, and I hated it. Every time he called me though I about cringed because he was always doing something I didn't want to hear. He'd call me while he was eating, he'd call me when he was on the other phone with people from work and make me listen to that whole conversation, then he loved to call me (and my sister does this to) from the fast food drive through. He'd call me right as he was about to order, then tell me hold on I have to order my food. WHY NOT WAIT TILL YOU HAVE ALREADY ORDERED!! Hell wait till you've already gone home and ate for that matter.